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This blog is a collection of my personal thoughts, comments and ideas about all things digital.
I don't have a particular focus but write little bit about everything, such as reviews of marketing campaigns and methods I see being used, digital strategies, technologies and other cool stuf I come across with.

Saturday, 28 May 2011

Even "boring" companies can do great things with social media!

When you hear the words social media, what companies come to mind? Coca cola? Skittles? Ben & Jerry's? If so, it's not a surprise. These companies have been well publicized for their use of Facebook and Twitter to create innovative campaigns. But other companies are using social medias too. Even "boring" companies!

The following best practice analysis is of Intuit inc. (an American software
company) that develops financial and tax preparation software and related
services for small businesses, accountants and individuals. The company is a
great example of how any company (not just the obvious, fun ones, like Skittles or Ben & Jerry’s) can utilize social medias and communities in their
business models.

The online presence of the company is
quite impressive, especially considering the field of work Intuit’s in. Their
online activities cover everything form blogging, crowdsourcing, YouTube
channels, social networks to aTaxAlmanac, which is a free tax research resource
modeled after Wikipedia.

Intuit’s greatest strength is in its
massive number of communities. Just one of their communities has more to offer
than many other companies’ entire online presence.

Besides the official company blog (TurboTax
team blog), which covers topics
from industry specific topics to topics relevant to individuals, and the blog
written by the Vice President Bob
Meighan’s blog, each community has a
blog of their own. Each community also has an expert locator map, calendar of
upcoming Intuit and other relevant events, forums, podcasts, videocasts,
webinars, whitepapers and user generated content. The communities are built
around the different Intuit products, which have their own specific user
segments. Having all this information and content made available for each
product makes sense, since there is little risk of cannibalizing their own
communities.

Example of just one of Intuit’s
communities is JumpUp, which is a free
social networking and resource site for small businesses and start-ups. The
site offers numerous free tools and services, like an interactive business
planner, different cost and profit calculators, free templates and sample
business plans.

Intuit is also
involving their customers into the development of new software and
applications. On Intuit Labs.com Intuit’s development
teams share their ideas and products with users to have them tested and to get
feedback from them. All this is freely available for customers and the featured
applications cover everything from small businesses apps, to apps related to
personal finance and various mobile devices.

Finally, as a
testament to their commitment to providing people with all the possible
information they might need related to finance and taxation, in 2005 intuit
launched the TaxAlmanac. The site is modeled
after Wikipedia and is written by US tax professionals and combines legislative
information with practical examples and case studies.

Weaknesses
and threats

Intuit’s massive online presence can also be
seen as a weakness. The massive amount of personnel and operating costs
required to maintain this kind of system can easily cripple a company if
circumstances were to change. Because Intuit has established itself as the
number one software company for personal finance, accounting and tax return
software in the US and has created these huge communities around each of its
products, consumers will expect the same for every new product they will
launch. Every product will have to have its own site, with its own designated
experts and content, which means ever-higher operating expenses.

Even if Intuit eventually does discontinue old
products, people will still be using them and will not take it lightly if
Intuit will also close the communities of these products. So the choice is
between saving operating costs or pissing of and possibly alienating their
customers.

Intuit’s inability to expand to other
geographical markets is also a weakness. In most of Europe and around the
world, taxation is far more simple and automated than in the US. Average
citizens in these countries don’t need the type of software Intuit offers and
that means that the market the company is competing in is limited mostly to the
US. Spending in online marketing is the highest in the US market and if Intuit
wishes to stay as the market leader in their field, they need to invest
significantly time, resources and money to marketing and research.

Opportunities

Even though the company is somewhat limited to
the US market for now, they could still expand to other geographical markets
with their small business and start-up software’s. Providing European markets
for example with information on the international legislation related to
finance and taxation, with software optimized for the European and UK
accounting standards could be a way to enter the market.

Conclusion

Intuit’s online presence is
a combination of high-level professionalism, mixed with a dash of fun and
lightheartedness, which can be seen on their Facebook
page and on their TurboTax
– channel. Intuit has invested heavily on building communities around each of
their products. Each of these niche communities has a very active level of
engagement by the company’s specialists and the users. The company has
understood that just by providing people and companies with software to help
with their taxation and accounting problems isn’t enough, the support by Intuit
has to be top quality and can’t be limited to just product support but has to
encompass the entire process of accounting and taxation. By making all this
information and content free, re-enforces the company’s image as a reliable
source of information, and the customer engagement through the several
communities, social networks and crowdsourcing guarantees high-level

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About Me

An internationally experienced, multilingual, digital native with a dash of viking fury.

I'm passionate about digital marketing and currently work at Coalition Rewards in Helsinki, Finland as a Marketing Manager. When I'm not kicking ass in the digital marketing field I enjoy working out, playing sports and traveling around the globe.

I've had great experiences working for agencies as well for large and small in-house B2B and B2C marketing teams. I have several years of experience in large multinationals: Google, 3M and Nike and a solid understanding of the business challenges of large, mid-market and small businesses.